MacDowell, the storied artist residency, has announced that it has temporarily removed reference letters as part of the application process. The trial phase for removing reference letters will begin with the next application cycle, which begins this November 1st. For Read more >
Today, the National Book Foundation announced the host of its 72nd National Book Awards: Phoebe Robinson, standup comedian, actress, author, and founder of Tiny Reparations Books. Among other accomplishments, Robinson is the New York Times-bestselling author of You Can’t Touch Read more >
1. Supply Chain Issues Drape yourself in paper chains and take a really, really long time to respond to questions. 2. Woke Franzen Dark rimmed glasses, button-down, binoculars for bird-watching, good opinions. 3. Group Chat Subpoena Absolutely destroy the party Read more >
What if… Marvel comics were being anthologized by Penguin Classics? Wonder no further, for that day is here! This morning, the publisher announced their new series, the Penguin Classics Marvel Collection, which means that Jane Eyre and Dorian Gray can Read more >
If you haven’t listened to Lili Anolik’s podcast about the literary history of Bennington—Once Upon A Time…at Bennington College, which began last month and is based on her excellent 2019 Esquire piece about the school and the Gen X literary Read more >
Gary Paulsen, the author of over 200 books, including beloved YA classic Hatchet and its sequels, died on October 13 at the age of 82, Publishers Weekly reported. Paulsen, who was himself an avid outdoorsman and adventurer—he ran the Iditarod Read more >
They say there’s someone for everyone, and I think that’s also true of bookstores. This week, I found out about a new East Village indie, Pillow-Cat Books, which only houses books that feature animals. It delighted a very specific part Read more >
On this day in 2005, Harold Pinter received the Nobel Prize in Literature, for his plays which “uncover the precipice under everyday prattle and force entry into oppression’s closed rooms.” Two months later, recovering from esophageal cancer, he gave his Read more >
The Queen’s Gambit, Bridgerton, Mindhunter, Maid: Netflix has a track record of turning books into hit television series. And though popular adaptations often drum up interest in their source material—after the show premiered, Walter Tevis’s The Queen’s Gambit landed on Read more >
Look, we were all waiting for a new discourse to come around and knock Bad Art Friend off its surprisingly sturdy pedestal, but personally, I was hoping for something slightly more interesting than Should MFA Programs Teach You How to Read more >
2021 has been a busy year for Don DeLillo adaptations. When you consider there have only been two screen adaptations of DeLillo novels in the past, that doesn’t seem like that big of a statement—but it’s actually been a whirlwind. Read more >
Yes, that happened. A local branch of Oregon’s Deschutes County Library system had to call in the bomb squad to ascertain the nature of a Styrofoam box left on its doorstep. As reported in Newsweek (for some reason!?): After the Read more >
If you’re in a reading rut, fear not! There are some glorious books coming into the world today, guaranteed to get you back in the groove of things. We’ve got life wisdom from Nick Offerman and Sutton Foster! A thriller Read more >
The poem is spoken by a girl with an Electra complex. The father died while she thought he was God. Her case is complicated by the fact that her father was also a Nazi and her mother very possibly part Read more >
This September 30th—International Translators Day—a group of translators, writers and publishers signed an open letter asking that translators be named on the covers of the books they translate. “It is thanks to translators that we have access to world literatures Read more >
If you were on Twitter yesterday, you may have seen people talking about Sally Rooney being anti-Semitic. The reason for this conversation is the claim that Rooney refused to let her new novel, Beautiful World, Where Are You, be translated Read more >
On this day in 1908, Ann Petry was born in the bucolic seaside town of Old Saybrook, CT. Her groundbreaking novel The Street (1946) was an immediate success, selling 20,000 copies in advance of its release. It went on to Read more >
During a recent passive scrolling session on Twitter, I found this tweet from way back in early 2019—yes, it was a long passive scrolling session, but I’m trying to make something of it here—in which Devin Gael Kelly jokes that Read more >
How does one visualize a writer’s style? You can close read and accumulate observations; you can map the structure of a text through drawing; and now, a new web tool allows you to visualize any piece of writing by stripping Read more >
Just like everyone else in their 20s who spends too much time scrolling through Instagram Reels, I have gotten very into roller skating over the past few months. It’s pure joy! It makes you feel like a child! It gives Read more >
